Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and committee members.
It's such a pleasure to be here with you today on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, a network of 200,000 businesses across the country that have a lot of interest in the budget and a lot of questions about it. I think business is really excited about the budget, and it's because a lot of the things that they're most interested in are soon to come. The infrastructure phase two and the export corridors are absolutely critical to getting our products to market. We've seen a big surge in exports in the last year in manufacturing, and a lot of Canada's road supports, airports, and infrastructure are under pressure. We really appreciate that.
The innovation agenda that's soon to come is an amazing opportunity that we're excited about. Canada already has high public expenditure on R and D. We're one of the highest in the OECD, but where we lag is in commercialization, and that's why there's a role for private sector innovation through venture capital incentives and maybe through a patent box where, if you develop a patent here in Canada, you would be taxed at a much lower rate.
Other things that were soon to come in the budget that we talked about were the review, reform, and re-examination of tax credits. That line in the budget caught our attention. We think it's a great idea. We've been talking about tax simplification for years. I remember tax accountants telling us that the tax code is very complicated, and when tax accountants are telling me that things are complicated, probably it's a challenge.
I want to definitely emphasize Mr. Kelly's comments on the tax rate for small business, the deferral of that. A great way to stimulate the economy is putting more money into the pockets of Canadian businesses. When they have extra cash left over at the end of the year, that's when they invest. It's absolutely critical to a strong economy to have more money in the pockets of Canadian business. We've heard about from members across the country how important that is.
The other one that's really of interest to members is Canada Pension Plan reforms. The challenge is whether Canadians don't save enough. It's not a universal problem that requires a universal solution. There certainly are Canadians perhaps who probably.... Various studies point to about 15% to 20% of Canadians who will see a sharp drop-off in income on retirement. So what we would say is that really we need to target those particular Canadians rather than having across-the-board increases because we know absolutely that it would be a dead weight on the economy to have taxes across the board. Effectively CPP contributions act like a payroll tax, so that's why pulling more money out of employers' resources or out of employees' cheques will be detrimental to the economy. We think there are really an interesting targeted measures that would work.
Finally, on EI reform, we would like that to go down to the break-even rate, and lowered EI premiums are critical for our members.
Those are some of the key issues that came to us from our members.
I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.